No helping hand
Despite welcoming back Bregman and others, slumbering bats, shaky bullpen produce another loss
DENVER — Reinforcements arrived for a taste of the Astros’ terrible brand of April baseball. Dusty Baker begged for patience, for the moment when health and safety protocols permitted some of his superstars back with the ballclub. Tuesday allowed Baker almost a full complement of players.
Three everyday players rejoined the team. Baker declined to use one of them in a blatantly obvious spot. Another appeared rusty after his six-day absence. Martin Maldonado guided starter Luis Garcia through a great spot start in brutal conditions, but not even he can fix the disastrous state of Houston’s bullpen.
Garcia departed with a one-run lead after 5⅔ innings.
Two relievers teamed to give it away, sending the Astros to a 6-2 loss on a frigid Colorado evening. Houston has now lost eight of its last nine games. The lineup has six hits in the last two. Playing for the first time in a week, Alex Bregman bounced into two back-breaking double plays and struck out looking — all with runners on base.
Houston has scored four
times in the last three games, forcing an abysmal bullpen to pitch with a miniscule margin for error. Four relievers teamed to yield four earned runs in 2⅓ innings against a terrible Rockies lineup. Joe Smith’s April implosion continued with C.J. Cron’s three-run home run in the eighth, removing any thoughts of a Houston comeback.
Smith now has a 15.43 ERA in five innings. Brooks Raley inflated his to 10.80 with a wretched showing. Mistakes have marred every man in this bullpen. Bryan Abreu took first his turn on Tuesday.
Abreu took the baseball with two outs in the sixth. The Astros clung to a one-run lead. Garcia yielded a single to Trevor Story and plunked Charlie Blackmon with a breaking ball, bringing Baker from the dugout as Cron loomed.
Colorado came to the ballpark with a major-league worst 69 OPS+. League average is 100. No other team had a mark lower than 78. The Rockies rely on two players — Story and Blackmon — and receive little else from their lineup. Ryan McMahon is off to a masterful start and Cron carries a track record. Otherwise, offense is optional.
Before Abreu entered the game, the Rockies did next to nothing against Garcia, a 24-yearold righthander making a spot start in Lance McCullers Jr.’s absence. Garcia glided through five innings, mixing four pitches proficiently.
The Rockies swung and missed seven times against his 28 secondary pitches, including five whiffs against his slider. Story struck out twice against him. Blackmon fanned in the second, too.
Garcia had only two troublesome innings. To start the fourth, Raimel Tapia struck a fly ball that fell between four converging Astros in shallow right field. No one thought to cover second base in the interim, allowing Tapia to advance an unnecessary 90 feet. He scooted to third on McMahon’s groundout, affording the two most terrifying hitters in Colorado’s order a chance to chase him home against the Astros rookie righthander. Garcia struck out Story and induced a bounce out from Blackmon to keep the game scoreless.
Garcia walked Tapia to start the sixth, but received a massive 6-4-3 double play from McMahon to minimize some pressure. Story and Blackmon reapplied it, sending Baker for Abreu. Abreu fell behind Cron 1-2 before serving him a slider. It did not break.
Cron crushed the baseball to center field. Myles Straw took one step in before bolting backward. Cron struck the ball 112.9 mph. Not even Straw’s speed could catch up to it. The ball bounced behind him and onto the warning track. Story and Blackmon motored home with ease, beginning another annihilation of the Astros’ bullpen.
Houston’s only chance to counter came in the next half-inning. Maldonado worked a twoout walk to chase Colorado starter Jon Gray from the game.
Rockies manager Bud Black had both a lefthander and righthander warming in his bullpen. In the Astros dugout, Yordan Alvarez grabbed a bat and put on his batting gloves. For reasons that escape logic, he did not appear in the game.
Instead, Baker sent Abraham Toro out to pinch hit. Alvarez, like Bregman, had missed six days due to health and safety protocols. He did not start in a National League ballpark, but Baker was adamant before the game that Alvarez would be prepared to pinch hit and “help us” if required.
No better situation presented itself than this. Baker stuck with Toro. He popped the first pitch he saw from reliever Yency Almonte into right field, bringing another brutal inning to conclusion.
Baker did send Alvarez out to the on-deck circle with two outs during the ninth. The Astros faced a five-run deficit. He hit with the club down four, when its fate was already decided. Alvarez grounded out to seal it.